TWENTY-FIVE YEARS on from the release of Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-1981, a second volume — Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93 — features almost two hours of Ghanian highlife, jazz and funk.

According to Songlines magazine’s special publication, Songlines Presents The Music Of West Africa, under the leadership of Ghana’s socialist president Kwame Nkrumah indigenous music, notably highlife dance band music flourished. He provided state funding for dozens of bands and travelled to neighbouring countries with a highlife band as a “signifier of national identity and a major cultural export.”

The overthrow of Nkrumah in 1966 sent Ghanaian music into decline: clubs and music venues were closed and popular bands were forced into semi-retirement, and many musicians left the country. The booklet notes refer to the coup lead by military officer Jerry Rawlings in 1970 as being responsible for many musicians leaving Ghana.